Transfer table for sawmills



TRANSFER TABLE FOR SAWMILLS Filed March 10, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 .nm uW J MUM IM H HIHH 'H HHII MIMI, 'IHIHHII. 'M 11H l' II HHHW IIIH May 17,1927.

c. MQSEN ET AL TRANSFER TABLE ,FOR SAWMILLS Filed March 10, 1926 2Sheets-Sheet 2 3m" hm 011111405620, am; We)? C'olenaarv- Patented May17, 1927.

* STATES PATENT orrics.

TRANSFER TABLE non SAWIVIILLS.

Application filed March 10, 1926. Serial No. 93,655.

This invention relates to improvements in transfer tables for sawmills,having for an object to provide a device for moving the sawed boardsfrom the usual or standard design of transfer table for sawmills anddirecting the same into engagement with the conveyor means of a trimmeror trimming table, whereby the ends of said boards will be trimmed, thatis, properly squared and cut to the desired length, the device being ofsuch construction as to permit its operator to accurately position oradjust the board to be trimmed with respect to the first of the usualseries of trimmer saws during the time of actual transfer of said boardfrom the transfer table onto the trimmer, hence, insuring propertrimming thereof and also, elin'iinating the need of two men for thistransfer of the board onto the trimmer, and the proper positioning ofsuch board for trimming, thereby effecting a saving in time and laboroverhead expense.

Another and equally important object of y the invention is to provide atransfer table of the standard design with an auxiliary transfer meansor device operable to re- .i'nove the board to be trimmed from thetransfer table and at the same time, to elevate it to'a position fromwhich it can be readily skidded onto the trimmer table, the board duringthis skidding transfer from the device onto the trimmer, being soarranged as to permit of easy and convenient adjustment thereof to aposition whereat it will be properly trimmed, by a single operator orattendant.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide the auxiliary transferdevice with a simple and efficient form of control means therefor,whereby said auxiliary transfer may be operated at will by the singleoperator for removing and elevating the board to be trimmed from thetransfer table prior to its actual transfer to the trimmer means, hence,permitting ample time to be had for effecting proper positioning of theboard with respect to the trimming saws.

Other objects of the invention will be in part obvious and inpartpointed out hereinafter.

In order that the invention and itsmode of operation may be readilyunderstood by persons skilled in the art, we have in the accompanyingillustrative drawings, and in the detailed following description basedthereupon, set out one possible embodiment ofthe same.

In these drawings:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of portions of the adjacent ends of astandardized transfer table and' trimmer with my improved auxiliarytransfer device installed thereupon.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same showing the operating andcontrol means for the auxiliary transfer device, and,

Figure 3 is a fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line 3-3 ofFigure 2, looking in the direction in which the arrows point.

Having more particular reference to the drawing, in connection withwhich like characters reference will designate corresponding partsthroughout, it may be stated for convenience at this time, that ourimproved auxiliary transfer device is especially adapted forinstallation upon the acceptedand standard type or design of transfertable generally indicated herein by the numeral 1, such transfer tablebeing provided with a series of relatively spaced parallel conveyorchains 2 operated by suitable means, not shown herein; it being understood that certain of the ends of such con" veyor chains are receivedabout sprocket wheels 3 carried upon a shaft mounted transversely of oneend of the transfer table 1 as is clearly shown inthe Figure 2. Suitablesuper-supporting structure generally v designated by the numeral 4 isprovided the transfer table 1, while adjacent to the discharge endthereof and supported upon other supporting structure 5 is the receivingend of the usual trimmer of a standard design of sawmill; this trimmerserving to receive the sawed boards from the transfer table 1 whereuponsuch boards are engaged by conveyor chains generally designated by thenumeral 6 and carried longitudinally over such table into engagementwith series of rotary trimmer saws generally indicated at this time bythe numeral 7. In this way, it will be understood by workers skilled inthe art that the sawed boa ds received from the transfer table 1 havetheir ends properly occurring between the adjacent ends of the transfertable and the trimmer. table, it be ing the duty of these men to liftthe boards from the transfer table and to direct the same onto theconveyor chains 6 of the trimmer, properly adjusting the boards sotransferred so that certain of the ends thereof will be adjusted withrespect to the first saw 7 of the series thereof. that the end of theboard will be properly squared when out to the desiredlength. Anoperation such as this, obviously, entails considerable, expense andwith a view toward reducing such expense, our. improved auxiliarytransfer device is employed.

The improved auxiliary transfer device may be stated tocompriseaninclined runwa .8 disposed transversely of the discharge en of. thetransfer table 1 in the manner.

shown in theFigures land 2 lthe upper and outer endof therunway 8,beingsupported upon=standards 9, which standardsinturn,

have journal boxes or bearings, 10, secured to the upper and outer sidesthereof whereby to rotatably support a transversely disposed sha-ft.11carrying thereon suitably spaced sprocketv wheels 12jover which the endsof endless conveyor chainsli i'are passed, the said endless conveyorchains 13 beingextended I transversely of the inclined runway and, insubstantial parallelism to the conveyorL chains 2, of the transfer tableproper.

to, points below the table as is. shown in the FigureQ, whereupon theyare received about sprocket wheels 14 mounted uponv suit ablestnblshzafts journaled in bearings PI'OVIClGCl upon diagonally disposedsupporting arms or brackets 15 extended from the said run-, way13, Also,in this connection, itis to be noted that the. upperlpprtionof therunway 8 is :arrangeddn asubstantially horizontal plane as is indicatedby the numeral 16, thus servingto carry the board-to be trimmed from thedischargeend of the transfertal'ile 1. subsequently to its elevation toapoint thereabove. It;v is likewise 1 of momentv to note atth-is time,that the lower and inner chains 13v of the auxiliary transfer device arenot only arranged in substantiallyparal lel ism to the conveyor chains 2of the transfer: table 1 but that they are disposed. in

slight overlapping relationship with respect thereto in the mannerclearlyshown in the Eigure 1. Because of this-overlapping as betweentheadj-acent or meeting ends of the conveyonchains 2 and 13, it will bereadily appreciated that sawed boards passing from thechains 2 will beimmediately engaged and conveyed further on from the'discharge areprovided in the improved device, the upper ends of the said bars beingso formed as to be arranged in planes corresponding to the plane inwhich the upper end of the runway 8 is arranged, as indicated by thenumeral-16 these said-upper ends of the skid bars 17 being provided withdownwardly disposed lingers adapted to be engaged in bracket gears 18extended from immovable brackets or extensions 19 carried upon theupperend', of saidrunway 8. The lower or remaining. ends of the skidbars 17 are extended into engagement with the adjacent or. receivingend. of the table of "the trimmer of the sawmilland thus, it will beappreciated that boards delivered'onto the said horizontal portions ofthe skidbars 17 will.

be caused'to move thereover onto the down wardly inclined portionsandfrom thence, directedonto the trimmer table for engagementby the endlessconveyor chains 6 where'- upon they are then conveyed into engage mentwith the trimming saws..7 aforesaid. These skid barsv 17 arepdisposedlongitudinally withrespect to the transfer table and the trimmer of. thesawmill and also, are arranged 111 relative parallel relation as isclearly shown inthe Figure 1. Because of the, factthat the horizontalportions of said will. be, understood that certain of their ends may beso positioned as to be accurately.

squared atthetime ofcutting 'ofthe same into. the. desired length bythe. various. triinming saws.

With ,a view toward providing the end less conveyor chains 13 of: theauxiliary transfer device. with a means for imparting motion thereto, asprocket wheel 20 is mounted upon one portion: of the trans verselyextending shaft 11 sprocket chain- 21 engaged thereabout, said sprocketchainpassing downwardly into engagementwith .and over a sprocket wheel22. mounted upon aidriven shaft 23 journaled in suitable bearings 2aupon a supporting frame work 25 at a point below the auxiliary transferdevice. This driven shaft 23 is provided with a gear 26 normally.

and has a latter bearing being provided with a slidably mounted carriage31 received upon a suitable guideway or bracket 32. Thus, it will beunderstood that that end of the countershaft 28 engaged in the slidablehearing 30 will be permitted to be moved, but at the same time, it willbe appreciated that the extent of such movement will not be such as todisengage the n'ieshing and 27.

A friction wheel 33 is also fixedly mounted upon the countershaft- 28,preferably at a point in proximity to the mounting of the aforesaid endof such shaft in the slidable bearing 30; this friction wheel 33 beingadapted to be engaged-with a friction pulley 34 fixedly mounted upon anadjacent portion of a driving shaft 35, also mounted in bearings 36 uponthe said frame 25 and arranged in substantially parallelism to theaforesaid shafts 23 and 98. A fly wheel 3? is provided upon this drivingshaft 35 and is adapted to have belt gearing or similar powertransmitting gearing 38' engaged therewith in the manner indicated inthe Figures Qand 3, this belt gearing 33 being extended from a suitablesource of power, not shown herein. Thus, it will be appreciated thatwith the transmission of rotary motion by way of the belt gearing 38 tothe driving shaft 35, such motion will be trans mitted from the frictionpulley 34, to the friction Wheel 33, then from the counter shaft 28 tothe driven shaft 23 by way of the meshing gears 26 and From here, suchrotary motion will be transmits/d by way of the endless sprocket chain21 to the shaft 11, hereinbefore described, in order that rotary motionwill be delivered or transmitted to the endless conveyor chains 13 ofthe auxiliary transfer device. To normally maintain the peripheralportion of the friction wheelv 33 in engagement with the pe riphery ofthe friction pulley 34, lever 39 is mounted upon one end of the bracketas indicated at 40, the upper end of this.

lever being engaged by one end of a contractile coiledsoring 41, theopposite end of which is adjustably secured through the medium of a bolt42 to an adjacent portion of the super-supporting structure 4.Obviously, by adjusting this belt 42 with respect to thesuper-supportingstructure 4 with which it is engaged, the tension of thecontractile coil spring 41 may be either increased or decreased andthus, it willv be understood that the pressure with which the peripheralportion of the friction wheel 33 is engaged with the periphery of thefriction pulley 34 may be regulated as required. As intimated, since theupper or free end of the lever 39 is engaged by the contractil. coilspring 41, the lower portion of said lever will. be normally maintainedin its inward position and thus, due. to the fact that said lever isconnected through the medium of a link 43 with the bearing carriage 31,the bearing 30 thereon will be nor mally arranged in a position so thatthe peripheral portion of the friction wheel 33 is engaged with theperiphery of the friction pulley 34. However, while rocking the lever 39in an opposite direction, it follows that a pull. will be imparted tothe bearing carriage 31 and by consequence, that this particular end ofthe conntershaft 28 will be moved so to disengage the peripheral.surface of the friction wheel 33 from the interrupting the transmissionof rotary motion from said pulley 34 to the wheel 33. Thus,withdisengagement of the lever 39, the contractile coil spring 41 willimmediately serve to return it to its normal position whereat frictionalcontact as between the elements 33 and 34 will be reestablished and apower-transmitting connection thus effected as between the shafts 28 andAuton'iatic means are"prov.ided for int parting rockingmotion to thelever 39 in form. of an. air or steam cylinder 44, the basal portion ofwhich is secured to anappropriate portion of the super supportingstructure 4 in the manner shown in the Figure 2. A piston is receivedwithinthis cylinder and to the outer end of its rod there is pivotallyjoined a connecting rod 45, which in turn, has its free extremitypivotally connected to a portion of the said lever 39 as indicated at46. An air or steam inlet connection 47 is provided the cylinder 44 andto control the discharge of air or steam into said cylinder at the willof an operator,

periphery of the friction pulley 34, hence,

' a control valve 48 is interposed therein, the

stem of said control valve having an operatmg lever 49 connectedthereto, which in turn 1s pivotally connected with a rod fiOextendinginto pivotal engagement with one end of a bell crank lever 51 mountedupon a suitable suaaortin arm '52; the o osite l e P end of this bellcrank lever 51 being pivotally connected to the lower end of a footlever or plunger 53, the upper end of which passed through a supportingplatform 54 received upon the super-supporting structure 4 and 5 in themanner as shown in the Figures 1 and 2. Upon this platform the operatoror attendant of the device is adapted to stand and by consequence, thissaid operator may interrupt the transmis sion of rotary motion to theendless conveyor chains 13 of the auxiliary transfer device, by onlyplacing his foot upon the plunger 53, depressing the same so as to rockthe bell crank lever 51, and the con-. trol valve 48 will be opened toadmit air or steam to the cylinder W'ith theadmis sion of air or steamto the cylinder 44, an outward thrust will be imparted to the pistonworking therein and by consequence, such outward thrust will bedelivered by way of the connecting rod to the lever 39, hence, rockingsaid lever 39 in a direc-' tion to move the slidalole bearing 30 in sucha manner as to effect a dISCOIIIIEC-tlOIl'Of the peripheral surface ofthe friction wlie'el with theperipheral surface of the friction"disengages or removes his foot from the plunger 53,.said plunger willreturn to its normal position and the valve 48'will, by consequence, beclosed, thus permitting the air within the cylinder 44 to'beexhaustedandallowing the piston working therein to be"returned to itsnormalinoperative position by. reason of the counter-action of thecontractile spr in 41 engaging. the upper or freeend' of' the ever\V'ith the return of the piston within the cylinder t tto'its normalposition, repositioning of the sliciable bearing 30 will be effected andby consequence, africtional driving connection between the" shafts 28and 35 will he re-estab-' lished. In this way, it is manifest that thetransmission of rotary motion to theendlessconveyor chains 13 of theauxiliary transfer device may be controlled at will by an operator.

Also, if desired, another control plunger may be extended to thesupporting'platform 54 and thisfplunger' 55 is connected to controlmechanism, not shown herein, in order that the said operator may controlthe transmission of" motion to the endless conveyor chains 2 of' thestandard transfer table.

The operation of our improved device may be reviewed as follows:

Rotary motion is transmittedlto the end less conveyor chains 13' of theauxiliary transfer device througn the motion transmitting mechanismhereinbefore described. Likewise, motion is transmitted to the con-'veyor chains 2 of the transfer table 1 in the usual manner. Sawed boardsare carried by the conveyor chains 2 of the transfer table 1 topositions whereat they will he engaged by the properly moving endlessconveyor chains 1*, sucn sawed boards being conveyed from the dischargeend of the transfer tabled and'elevated to positions above the same asis indicated in the Figure 2.

The boards so conveyed and elevated'are directed onto the horizontallyarranged portion 16 of the runway from whence they are directed onto theskidding bars 17. As the boards are directed onto the skidding bars 17,the operator standing on the platform 10 properly adjusts the same sothat the adjacent end of the board in process'of being transferred willbe properly positioned'with re spect to, the first trimming saw 7 ot theseries of trimming saws shown in the Figure 1. This adjustment may bereadilv etfectei by the operator aforesaid, merely by push} ing orpulling the board being trahsferrrd over the skids 17,150 a posit-ionwhereat' the end to he t'rin'ime'dwill be properlyarranged with respectto said first trimming saw 1. Consequently upon this'adjustinent of thesawedboard by the operator upon the platform 10, it will be appreciatedthat with the following cutting of the board to the desired length bythe trim'mingsaws 7' and T", the respectiveends thereof will be properlysquared. Asthe operator may desire, the transii'iission of motion to theendless conveyor chainslil of the auxiliary transfer device maybe'controlledi Likewise, the motioniof the conveyor chains 2 of thetransfer table 1' may lie alsocont-rolledby reason of the localizing ofthe control 'devicesin form of'the plungers or foot levers'53 and 55upon the said platform 10. Through thep'rovision of'this improvedauxiliary transfer device, itwill be understood by persons skilled inthe art thatwe' are enabled to dispense with the services of the secondman usually employed in the transfer of boards f om thetransfer tableonto the trimming table. Likewise, the work of this operator standingupon the platform 10will be reduced to minimuin' by reason of'the factthat the boards being transferred from the'table 1 onto the trimmerof'the sawmill will move by gravity over the downwardly inclinedportions of the various skid bars 17 and that during this skiddingtransfer of the boards from the table onto the trin'in er, properadjustment ofthe same with respect to the trimming saws 7 and7' mayheeffected. Also, because of the localizing of the controls for theconveyor chains 2 and 13, the operation or feed of sawed boards from thetransfer table 1 onto the skidding bars 17 may be controlled at the willof the operator.

Manifestly, the construction shown is capable of considerablemodification, and u h modification as is within the"scope of our claims,we'consider within the spirit of our invention.

l/Ve claim:

1. In combination, a trinnner table, a

transfer table, and conveying means therebetween consisting of inclinedbars each having a portion thereof horizontally dis posed.

2. In combination, a trimmer table, a transfer table, and conveyingmeans therebetween consisting of inclined bars, each having horizontallyoffset portions formed upon their upper ends.

It witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

CARL MOSEN. VILLIAM J. COLEMAN.

